Originally Posted by
eesakiwi
There's a few problems with the idea, I looked into it too.
The idea of Anodes on a ship works because the whole ships immersed in water and becomes one huge circuit, with a few variables. So several Anodes spaced over the ship will do the job of being the 'Sacrificial Anodes'.
You just replace them as they sacrifice themselves to corrosion.
But in a vehicle, its made of lots of individual peices of metal and forms one larger one. At each connection of metal and expressly at connect joins between different metals, and around electrical earths, individual circuits set themselves up and cause local corrosion.
The answer is to cover the whole surface of metal in Zinc.
And the surface coating will help stop corrosion in scratches up to a certain point too. But a sacrificial anode on a vehicle won't work near as well as it does on a boat.
Small boast plugged into shore power, one boat owner neglects to keep his anodes replaced. That boat with poor anodes will eat anodes from all the other boats sharing shore power from that side of the electrical circuit.
Boat owners can purchase a shore power isolation unit called a galvanic isolator.
We in North America use a lot of salt on our roads during the winter months to melt snow and ice and this is where I believe having a sacrificial anode attached to your truck or trailer will help preserve your investment.
Live anywhere near the ocean you'll experience a lot of rust on your vehicle, moisture in the air combined with salt loves metals.
Here are some tests I did this afternoon.
The tractor has no battery and the engine removed, the OHM meter registers electric current. Because the tractor is mainly cast iron and steel the current is low.
The aluminum crate however is made from aluminum and this metal is more reactive, the OHM meter registers a much higher current. The tote sits on a plastic pallet so its normally insulated from the ground.
This is electrolysis at work, metal ions turning into oxides.
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